Bare
by Mystic25
Summary: Post "Flushed" Max's seizures left her weak in this episode, and what if during that time the unthinkable happened. WARNING: major character sexual assualt


TITLE:" Bare"  
  
AUTHOR: Mystic25   
  
EMAIL: little_girl_island34@hotmail.com  
  
SUMMARY: Post "Flushed" Alternate Ending. What if before Cindy had busted Max out of the prison, something happened to Max, something unthinkable (Main character sexual assault)  
  
RATING: R for situations and imagery  
  
WARNING: this fic contains imagery of sexual assault towards a main character. If this bothers you please read another fic.  
  
DISCLAIMER: Cameron owns them, we've done this dance before and my feet hurt too much to walk down to my own law suit hearing. Just let this one slide okay?  
  
A/N: for the sake of this story Cindy came into the Warden's room to rescue Max during the scene where the Warden was taking Maria out to do that sick deed.   
  
A/N: #2- I haven't given up on Choices guys..i just hit a few slow down bumps in my writing road. This fic is kinda depressing and dark but the idea came to me and I felt I had to write it.   
  
BTW: if I got the name of the prison wrong, sorry, I didn't have at transcript to reference  
  
*****   
  
LANFORD PRISON  
  
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON  
  
"Why do you think you're here?" the warden's cold eyes glared at Max as he led Maria through the doorway one hand on her back, pushing the girl out, wanting to lead her down to another bedroom with no windows.  
  
/Dirt bag bastard/ Max hated her feebleness right now. She was sapped off all energy to do anything other then lie on her ass on the floor and watch Maria be taken away by the slime in a suit. Even through her flashbacks of Lucy Max still was aware that there was a real girl in this present about to be humiliated and defiled. /Maria../ Her thoughts suddenly shifted to the present. Maria and the Warden seemed to move in slow motion towards the exit of the shabby little room with the bare concrete floor and walls.  
  
"Sick freak!" Max used all her energy to pull herself on shaky legs "You're not going to get away with this crap anymore!" she grabbed the Warden's neck, intending on choking the life out of him. But her seizures took away her powerful edge of strength, making her attempt weak enough for the Warden to grab her by her arm and throw her back down on the concrete floor.  
  
"No one tells me what I can do with my free time girly" the Warden released Maria's arm and grabbed at Max's shoulders who was now flat on her back on the floor.  
  
"No!" Maria grabbed at his arms, trying to yank the man off of Max "Please leave her alone!"  
  
The Warden's hand reached out to smack Maria across the face "You shut up little bitch!"   
  
His slap had drawn blood across the bottom of her lip, but she made no move to wipe off the trickle of crimson that was now dribbling down her chin. "Please, just take me! Please Sir!" Maria still begged to take Max's place, she knew all to well what he was about to do to the girl   
  
"It's not your place to make up my mind Maria! Now shut up or I'll have you thrown out on the street!" the warden turned his attention back towards Max "You're one of the special line ya know that?" he touched her hair, in a sick demented version of a lover's caresses "I only pick very beautiful prisoners to spend time in my quarters"  
  
Max's entire body was tense, and not just from the seizures still shooting up and down her. She smelt the stale warm coffee and donut breath of the warden on her skin "You better get up off me before you loose you're reason for doing this shit" she couldn't even move from her position, every time she tried her seizures kept her down but she wasn't about to remain passive while this son-of-a-bitch tried to get his way.  
  
He caressed her face with one chapped hand before removing it and tearing apart the blue fabric of her long sleeved shirt exposing her black bra. He actually smiled at what he saw "You're perfect" one hand groped her breast through her underwear.  
  
Max's hand shot up to get him off of her but he quickly pinned it back down due to her sapped strength. She felt incredibly dizzy and was on the verge of passing out, but she fought it because right now, Manticore training be damned, she was afraid of what would happen if she lost consciousness.  
  
"Uh uh sweetheart" the warden's hands moved towards her the waistline of her pants "Don't be like that-" his hand started to move underneath the fabric and it took all of her energy to keep from throwing up at the feeling of his chapped hands on her body. "I always get what I want-" he was stopped in mid sentence when Maria threw herself on his back "Leave her alone!" she grabbed at his hair, pulling it, tearing it.  
  
The Warden cried out, but turned around and grabbed up Maria by her right arm and flung her to one side of the bed where she smacked into the wall "I have had it with you bitch!"he got off Max "You are going to learn one way or another!" he moved his foot back to kick Maria in the stomach.   
  
"Scuse me" a voice interrupted the warden from the doorway "I need to do up this room" Cindy stood there in her gray sweats and yellow cleaning gloves, holding a bucket of water.   
  
"Later girly" the Warden snapped at Cindy "I'm attending to some business" he stepped in front of the doorway to block Cindy's entrance so she didn't have time to see the scene that was in front of her.   
  
Cindy knocked the Warden in the side of the head with the heavy aluminum bucket she was holding, sending him reeling onto the floor "I'm on a time schedule creep" she stepped over his form and into the room "Max-" her heart stopped when she saw her friend lying on the floor "Shit" she cursed when she saw the way Max's shirt was torn open. "Give this to her!" Cindy threw the two pills towards Maria who had knelt down next to Max. She watched Maria place the pills in Max's mouth and coaxed her into swallowing them "Did that looser creep put his hands on her?" her anger was red hot, no one touched her girl and lived to tell about it.  
  
"You better get out of here. He's going to wake up soon-" Maria talked about the Warden, not about what Cindy wanted answers too.  
  
"And you better tell me the truth and s  
  
"You better tell me straight up and stop beatin' around" Cindy ordered "She's my girl and ain't no body mess with her and gets away with it"  
  
It only took a few seconds for the pills Maria had given Max to take affect, so her she began to come around before Maria had the chance to answer Cindy's question. She blinked for a few seconds to get the gritty feeling to leave her eyes.  
  
"You aiight boo?" Cindy turned towards her friend, even though she already knew the answer to that. "Original Cindy got your back and we gonna get you outta here"  
  
Max sat up from the floor, and came to the full realization that her shirt was hanging open in torn pieces from her body. She didn't say anything on the subject, didn't even come out with a shocked expression or any other form of emotion. Cindy offerend her a hand to help her up but Max ignored it, getting to her feet to collect her jacket from the other side of the bed. She slid the fabric on her body without a word.  
  
"Where do you think you're going?" the Warden had regained consciousness and blocking the doorway, standing there with both hands on either side of the frame "I've just been alerted that there are some people looking for you girly, and as much as I like to finish this, you're coming back out with me-" before he could finish Max locked her hand on his neck and this time she took pleasure in hearing the sounds of gasping coming out of his mouth.   
  
"Max! That's enough, MAX!" Cindy grabbed Max's arm when she realized that any longer and Max's grip could kill the Warden. Not that she didn't want to beat down the shit herself for what he did to her girl, but they needed to get out of there "Damn girl what's in those pills?"  
  
"Spinach" Max threw out, adding nothing more, zipping up her jacket to hide her exposed skin from the torn shirt.  
  
"You're going to help us get outta here," Cindy growled to the Warden  
  
"I don't think so" he heard the sound of a gun cocking behind his head   
  
"Think again" she looked to Max, concern in her brown eyes "You doin' aiight suga?"  
  
"I'm fine" Max reassured her friend "But I'm not leaving without her" She glanced towards Maria.   
  
Cindy pushed the gun into the Warden's neck "Got hot lead ready to explode right behind your head scank, you're octopus arms try to touch either of my girls again I'm gonna blow them and all of your legs three of'em off. Now we're gonna walk to your ride like you got the privilege of escorting three fine ass mommas out to the homecoming festivies. I wanna see big smiles okay?" she dug the muzzle of the Sig deeper into the skin of his neck "Let's go"   
  
They made it out of the prison to the razor wire fenced lined parking lot without incident. "Open it" Cindy ordered, her hand on the trigger of the gun, gesturing towards the Warden's black sedan sitting on the wet asphalt.  
  
The Warden had no choice but to comply, and popped open the trunk of his car   
  
"In the trunk honey" Cindy said to Maria, watching her climb inside first, followed by Max who shut the door.  
  
"Don't think I don't know how to use this" Cindy threatened to the warden "Time for the festivities to begin. Get in" she opened the driver's side door, holding the gun on him the entire time.  
  
They drove through the prison gate, Cindy keeping the gun on the warden at all times. After several miles of tree line began to pass them Cindy gave another order to the man driving "Pull over and let my girls out" the car started to slow down "And if I EVA catch your low down slimy self tryin' to put some insults on my girl's character again-" she didn't get to finish before the Warden swerved on the road, the impact sending Cindy reeling against the passenger side window. He reached down by her hand to pick up the gun on the seat's upholstery. He left her there, and walked back towards the trunk.  
  
The gun cocked in his hand as we went to open the lid /Damn bitch isn't worth all of this-" the trunk caught him in the face as Max stepped out "I broke your lock. Sorry" She saw a black Jeep approaching with armed guards from the prison filing the seats. She approached the jeep, jumping into it and throwing out the driver and the passenger before flipping over the metal bar for the roof and knocking out the other two guards in the back with a single jumping maneuver  
  
Maria was running towards the jeep with Cindy in tow, grabbing at her head, at a nasty red bump that was already beginning to form there. "Bus is about to leave ladies" Max gunned the engine after Cindy and Maria had climbed inside.  
  
"You okay?" Max turned to Cindy after they were moving, eyeing the discoloration on her skin above her eyebrow.  
  
"Girl I'm not the one to be askin'" Cindy threw back in all seriousness.  
  
*****   
  
SECTOR TEN  
  
Max shut the door to her room, so Maria could have some privacy. The poor kid was exhausted, she had sacked out as soon as her head hit the pillow.   
  
Her feet padded on the concrete floor covered up by a braided Indian Rug as she entered the living room. Kendra was standing by the couch holding a blue compress bag on Cindy's head, who was regaling their other friend on her dealing the warden his smack down.   
  
"He went splat" Cindy said proudly "Thinks he can mess with my girls and get away with it"  
  
"Maria's completely crashed out" Max let her presence be known in the living room with that remark "I'm going to let her sleep it off before I go to Logan's to find her a place to live-"  
  
"Sound's like you're all lucky to be alive" Kendra handed off the bag of ice to Cindy, turning towards Max. She really didn't know what to say. "Max, Original Cindy and I, we're really sorry we didn't believe you" her words just came tumbling out once she got past the initial hardness of it. She felt incredibly guilty especially after she had found out from Cindy what she had seen in the Warden's quarters.  
  
Max just shrugged it off "My girl got me out it's all good" she smiled at Cindy   
  
"You would've have been there if it wasn't for us girl" Cindy informed, holding the bag to her head "And none of that shit would've gone down" she still felt incredibly guilty for not believing Max about her pills and getting her landed in jail. The sight of her friend half lying naked on the floor of the Warden's quarters was forever burned in her mind. "You sure you doin' aiight?"  
  
"I'm good" Max returned quickly, in her usual show of emotions, just pushing the incident aside.   
  
"Max you had a bad thing happen to you" Kendra stated, putting one hand on Max's shoulder "It's okay to admit that"  
  
"Guys I'm FINE" Max came back, trying to reassure both her friends that she wasn't about to break in half because of what happened "Not that I don't appreciate the sympathy but it's just one of those sicko incidents I'd rather forget about kay?"  
  
Cindy gave a silent nod of understanding "You know we're here if you want to lay down some demons" she touched Max's hair giving it a gentle stroke, a caress from a friend, from one woman to another.  
  
Kendra nodded "Me and sister girl got your back okay hun?" Kendra hugged Max without asking; she just felt the situation called for it.  
  
Max didn't say anything but she hugged her back.  
  
"You know it's not you're fault" Kendra reassured "Some guys are just sick perverted freaks that don't recognize a good thing when the see it."  
  
"And believe us boo you're one of the BEST things in the girl division" Cindy added, no smile on her face, just an expression which she hoped projected concern for her girl. She was calm on the outside but she had to keep the livid anger at the SOB Warden under control or she might do something that would land her in jail with for an actual criminal charge.  
  
Max didn't show any emotion, but a heavy sigh escaped her a few seconds later "Gotta blaze" she turned around before either Kendra or O.C. could say anything more.  
  
*****   
  
FOGGLE TOWERS  
  
"So what's for dinner? You gonna feed me or you gonna just sit there? " Max began walking in the direction of Logan's kitchen, intending on raiding his fridge while she waited for him to cook up another spur of the moment culinary miracle  
  
"You know, you were much sweeter when you weren't feeling well." Logan kidded her. He was actually glad to see her back to her old self, smart mouth included. He didn't want to admit that he enjoyed taking care of her, having her depend on him for a change; but he was still happy to see her back to being a live wire again. She wasn't a weak person and he hated anything that left her so vulnerable, because he knew how much it must hurt if she was that emotionally exposed  
  
"The bitch is back" she threw over her shoulder good naturedly "I'll get out some plates if you get out some food" it was more of a demand then a question. Her black boots made soft clicking sounds on his sealed hardwood floors as she rounded the island set in the middle of the kitchen floor.  
  
"Somehow I feel like I came up short in this deal," Logan stated wheeling himself into his kitchen to find the prepared makings of a risotto in his fridge   
  
"If the food isn't up to snuff you will be" Max opened his mahogany stained cabinet and pulled out two cobalt blue china plates. She closed the cabinet doors and made her way over to the expensive marble dining table standing a few feet away from the kitchen.  
  
"Lemon pepper risotto with a white wine glazed baked Cornish game hen up to your level of satisfaction?" Logan reached in and took out the casserole dish where he had placed the raw birds in yesterday.  
  
"Considering my high level of satisfaction and your high level of culinary skills I would deem that acceptable" Max agreed  
  
"Glad to know that I'm still in the loop with the top ranks of Seattle" he placed the casserole dish on the counter before closing the fridge door with one hand "And that it ties in with you always getting the esteemed level of culinary skills that you expect"  
  
"Told you I always get what I want," Max reminded walking with the plates in her hand to the dining room table   
  
/"I always get what I want-" the warden's hand moved lower, underneath the fabric of Max's pants. Through her haze she could feel his bulky weight on top of her and already smell him pooling in his pants/  
  
She had to steady her hands so she wouldn't drop the plates she was holding, but one escaped her grip and clattered on the surface of the black marble table.  
  
"You okay?" Logan had wheeled himself into the dining room, brows furrowed in concern  
  
"Think my seizures are actin' up again" she lied, finally getting her hands to steady.  
  
"I have some extra pills under my bathroom sink" Logan stopped his chair right in front of her, looking up into her face, seeing something he didn't like. She seemed paler then usual. "Why don't you take some and catch a nap in my room before dinner's ready?"  
  
"I don't sleep Logan" she reminded him "and the seizures aren't that bad to warrant bed rest in the estate room of his lordship" she didn't turn around, keeping her back to him  
  
"At least take some of the pills" he suggested "Get a handle on them before they start to escalate. I don't think my skills as a chef will impress you if you if you're dragged down all night" he was being light hearted, but he was worried. This had been the first time he had witnessed her seizures, and he saw how bad they could get.   
  
"Maybe if you throw in a bottle of pre-pulse wine I'll agree to take a trip to your own personal pharmacy" Max turned and looked him in the eye, masking her expression like she had been taught to do to keep her emotions from giving away the lie she was telling about her seizures.   
  
"Well that kind of deal calls for a bottle of 96 Rhone" He smiled at her   
  
She smiled back, a small one "Guess no one's ever knocked on the Cale liquor stash, must be one of the perks of rollin' in it while the everyone else got their booze off the back of a truck"  
  
"My uncle was a firm believer that a good glass of wine was as important to a meal as having the food cooked completely through. He considered it a form of beauty"  
  
/"I only pick very beautiful prisoners to spend time in my quarters" his hands moved to tug at her shirt/   
  
Max blinked and caught Logan staring at her   
  
"You sure you're okay?"  
  
/No Logan I'm lying through my teeth like I was taught to do, but how the hell would you understand what I'm feeling?/ "Coo" she left it at that and headed towards his bathroom.  
  
Once inside she flipped on the small inset light above the mirror and closed the door softly. She turned on the sink, intending to splash some water on her face, but her stomach turned suddenly and she instead threw up in the basin. /"You're perfect"/ she could still smell his stale breath in his air and the memory made her sick again.  
  
"Max?" Logan's knocked on his bathroom door "You okay in there?"  
  
She didn't answer him, rinsing out the mess in the basin. Cupping some water into her palms she splashed her face before cutting off the light. Opening the door she stepped out right into Logan's path. "You ready for dinner or you want to gawk at me some more?" her remark was snappy, but she didn't like being stared at.   
  
"It sounded like-"   
  
"Sounded like what?" she cut him off "You into hanging outside when a girl's using the facilities?"   
  
"I didn't mean to intrude-"  
  
"So don't. Let's just do the food thing like the original plan was" she pushed past him and headed back into the living room.  
  
"Hey! I was just making sure you're okay" Logan followed her out "I think I deserve better then you getting pissy at me"  
  
"Logan right now there a lot of things you deserve but I don't like to ruin a good vibe in a room" Max retorted "I thought you'd be different somehow"  
  
"Different then what?" Logan was confused "I have right to know why I'm being placed under the the microscope"  
  
"You're just like any other guy" Max continued on with her original train of thought. "Men think that just cause a girl's by herself then can do whatever the hell they feel like, walk in on her private time, get down without consent, and she's just suppose to take it, remain all docile cause you got that extra chromosome crap goin' on"  
  
"I never tried to 'get down without consent' as you call it Max" Logan informed "I would never take advantage of a woman that way. And this IS my house I remind you, and I just wanted make sure you weren't sick or anything"  
  
"Well I'm fine DAD" she threw out "And I didn't come here to seek a pity fest from a rich burecrcatic white guy whose only dishing it out to get brownie points on helping the down trodden find their place in the world"  
  
"And I didn't plan to spend my whole evening walking on egg shells around some pissy female solider who had deemed me the whole sum version of every man she's ever had an issue with"  
  
"This convo is exactly why I don't expect you to wrap your head around the deailo that's goin' down with me" Max spat back "You think you can sit an analyze my life after knowing me for only a few months? Hell I've known myself for years and I still don't get everything about me. But at least I'm not tryin' to be somethin' I'm not, making friends outta the lowly cause it's the only way I can get my dirty leg work done"  
  
"Maybe the reason you're so hard to analyze Max is because you're an enigma wrapped in a hard caste bitchy exterior that you won't let anyone get past unless you're either sick or unconsciousness. But then again that's an analysis in it self. It's the only one I've had to go on since we met."  
  
"Some mysteries aren't meant to be unraveled Logan, ever think of that?" That things in the past are better left buried"  
  
"If I knew what past you were talking about Max I might agree with you"  
  
Her anger rose, if that was even possible "Ya wanna know the big secret bout my mood tonight Logan, so you can be a game playa bout the inner workings of my subconsiouness? What could've possibly gotten me so moody, moodier according to you ideology? Well let's see after spending hours on a cold ass cell block for most of the night I got hauled into a five by five box to watch a sick sagging bastard trying to feel me up cause I had this chemical imbalance that left me flat on my ass so I couldn't do a damn thing about that. Fraid that kinda thing imbalances a girl's happy thoughts."  
  
Logan didn't say anything for a long while, he was too shocked at what she had just told him./Is she admitting to being-/ "Max-"  
  
She held up her hand "Logan I'm not in the mood for another moo-eyed, 'it'll be okay talks', cause not even the all powerful Eyes Only can change the past" she turned and started walking out the door.  
  
"The past part where you were raped?"  
  
She turned around then, her eyes shifting from emotionless to enraged "Let's get one thing straight Logan" her voice held a low growl "Rape constitutes that bastard actually finishing what he intended to do. However since his game plan got cut off early I escaped being a statistic on a police bulletin board"  
  
"Is that what you're gonna tell yourself every time you have to justify the feelings it brings up?" his anger had gone now, and his voice was almost back to normal except for the underlying tone of sadness in it. She made him angry, pissed him off sometimes, but he still cared about what happened to her.   
  
"Believe me I've had plenty of practice justifying feelings that I'd rather just as soon forget" her anger was still there, she didn't forgive too easily, the product of years at Manticore and years on the run. "This isn't any different then the others" she searched his eyes for some kind of understanding, but all she still found was disbelief "I may be the perfect prototype in Manticore's eyes but I thought you knew me better. So let me save you the trouble of asking that question that's naggin' at you. Prototypes are inefficient versions of the real thing, that's why I couldn't do shit do stop it. I told you once I was a lemon, and lemon's never do what you want them too"  
  
"Max this wasn't your fault" Logan spoke softer to her, trying to get her to understand that he wasn't angry at her, not that it would matter if he was. It still didn't excuse what happened to her even if had some cruel angry retaliatory excuse for what she had undergone. "You didn't ask to have those seizures-"  
  
"If I hadn't skulked into Metro to get the damn pills none of this would've happened so don't lay any of that 'ain't no shame or blame' dealio's on me. Bottom line is I'm gonna go to bed every night for the rest of my life feelin' dirty and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it" she turned and walked out of the apartment, the slamming of the door, the sound reverberating inside it closed.  
  
= = = =   
  
Logan watched her leave, not following her, even forgetting how to move at that moment. There was so much to take in. He admitted it, the thought crossed his mind how Max, a super warrior could have be subdued into a situation like that. He wanted to know how she could take on men twice her size but not be able to stop one man from going over the line.   
  
But she was right, she did have seizures, a disease to her that robbed her of her normal super strength. And he knew that more then anything else she was mad at that, mad at being so vulnerable in the moment where strength counted the most.   
  
*****  
  
Max stood in front of the elevator, waiting for it to ding. But her patience was short and her anger red-hot so she kicked the silver doors with her foot. She kicked the door again, harder and this time /I'm a soldier a killing machine, and I couldn't stop one shit from messin' with me/  
  
= = = =  
  
I'm looking down now that it's over  
  
Reflecting on all of my mistakes  
  
I thought I found the road to somewhere  
  
Somewhere in His grace  
  
= = = =   
  
The elevator still hadn't come up yet, and Max now had no patience to wait. She turned around and took off in a sprint towards the stairwell she knew existed behind a green painted door.  
  
"Max?" the voice behind her was questioning, but it wasn't Logan's voice, it was deeper. She didn't have to turn around, she knew it was Bling behind those words "Is there a problem?" his brown eyes narrowed a bit, looking at her with the concern of a friend.   
  
"I'm good" she lied, turning around this time, only because Bling had just gotten off the elevator and it was a faster way to get down then taking the stairs, even at her speed.   
  
"Is Logan inside?" Bling didn't question her anymore, wanting to take her at her word for it.  
  
"Was the last time I checked," she wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone else tonight. "But I didn't delegate myself to be the man's babysitter"  
  
Bling was a little taken aback by her retort, she didn't have that kind of an attitude. It was strong but not with that kind of sting. Something was obviously bothering her "You sure you're okay?"  
  
"I must have a sob message stamped across my forehead cause I've been gettin' the sympathy card act more times then my gag reflexes can handle" Her eyes didn't give away any emotions, she was still a master at the poker face  
  
"Calm down girl" Bling held up his hand "I didn't mean to start anything. I just seem to be pickin' up a bad vibe from you"  
  
"We'll then you're radar must be outta whack cause I'm fine. Now if you'll excuse me this girl's gotta bounce-"  
  
"No one can be perfect all the time Max-" Bling admonished  
  
/"You're perfect-" the Warden's hand groped her skin under her bra/  
  
Max whirled on Bling shoving him into the wall, her anger was livid, not at Bling, but at everything that had transpired during the day. The dirt whory feeling she was now left with in the aftermath of her humiliation. And since Bling was the trigger for her memory, he became the vent for her emotions.  
  
"Max!" this time Logan's voice was the one shouting from the hallway, his front door ajar from where he had let it slam after he saw Max shove Bling into the wall. "Let him go! What the hell are you doing?"  
  
= = = =  
  
I cried out heaven save me  
  
But I'm down to one last breath  
  
And with it let me say  
  
Let me say  
  
= = = =   
  
Max stepped back from Bling's body, releasing her grip on the collar of his shirt, her hands falling to her sides like they were weighed down with lead.   
  
"You can't run from this" Logan's voice went one tone lower, a sad understanding now in his voice where the anger once was. His deep blue eyes locked on her form, watching as the strength and rage from just moments ago began to slowly dissipate from her body.  
  
She whipped back around to face Logan, and he was surprised to see wet moisture pooling behind her eyes "Then what the hell am I suppose to do? Tell me THAT Logan." her words were part angry part sad. She, who had escaped from a covert base when she was only nine years old and who had a smart mouthed comment for every piece of middle class idealistic banter Logan threw her way was at a loss, placed in a new hard territory she didn't know anything about. "You want me to come out and just admit that a two bit FREAK tried to sling himself all over my body just so you can rush in and get your male ya yas out by comforting the poor defenseless damsel in distress?" she said this all in one breath, not knowing that a lone tear had wove a track down her left cheek. She made no move to wipe it off, not knowing of its existence, and even if she did she wasn't into showing the true extent of how badly this ordeal had shaken her.   
  
= = = =  
  
Hold me now  
  
I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking  
  
Maybe six feet ain't so far down  
  
= = =   
  
Bling was still standing against the wall, and his eyes now adapted a shocked look about them. Never in a million years would he have imaged Max in that kind of situation. But now he realized that that was just an illusion he had created in his own mind because of the nature of Max's upbringing. To idiots on the street she was still a woman to be taken advantage of. And bastards always found ways of getting in to a woman's weakness, even ones as strong as Max. He understood now why Max had reacted the way she did. He sadly had the experience of going through this same ordeal when a classmate molested his sister when she was fifteen.  
  
"Have you been checked out by a doctor?" Bling hated to ask her. This part of the ordeal was always one of the most humiliating, having to have some other stranger examine you after ANOTHER stranger had already touched you. His sister had looked at him with such betrayal in her eyes when he had driven her to the doctor. She didn't speak to him for a month afterwards.   
  
Max laughed dryly, no humor evident in it at all. "Yeah right after I reported to the corrupt cops that one of their own corruptors kept female prisoners on the sexual sly I rushed right over to my gyno for a spec exam"  
  
"Max if he had anything catching-"  
  
"It doesn't matter kay?" she interrupted Bling with a fierce passion, not wanting him to go on with his description "Cause he didn't get that far, and bein' the type of girl I am seein' a doctor would be classified as tactical exposure" she looked from Logan to Bling, and back to Logan, upset at the concern on their faces "Enough of the pity party boys. I didn't come here for that"  
  
"We don't pity you Max" Bling informed, moving from the wall in slow steps towards her "My sister unfortunately went through the same kind of hell ten years ago," he paused for a moment, laying a hand on her shoulder " This is something you don't have to do on your own"  
  
"There's nothin' I have to do except live out my existence with this bitch on my back" she tried hard this time to keep her voice emotionless "Not like I don't have experience in that"  
  
Logan could see the sadness starting to emerge from her body while she still tried to repress it. She was forever the soldier, taught that emotions made you weak, and weakness was your enemy. But she had justified right to every emotion she was experiencing now, if only he could get her to see that. "Max-"  
  
"Don't try to lay any of that "It'll be okay" line crap on me again Logan" Max snapped, her anger was there, but it had been toned way down, and she sounded like she was on the verge of crying. "'Cause I've learned that's nothin' but a piece of shit people say to you when they know it really won't be but they think you can't handle the reality."  
  
"I just want to help you" Logan was at a loss at what to say to her anymore. She was a barred iron gate when it came to her emotions.   
  
She was so very raw from what had happened, but she still refused to give into it "Then don't ask me to dish out water works, let me outta today with one bit of decency still in tact. It ain't always about what you want" She paused for such a long time that Logan and Bling thought she had run out of things to say. "Now if you boys will excuse me I have things to do-"  
  
"Stop being so non chalant about this!" Logan called out after her, wheeling his chair down the hallway to where she was "There are some things you can't run from" he stopped, but then added in a softer, sadder voice "You didn't deserve it, no matter what you may think"  
  
"You don't know the half of what I deserve" she turned back around slowly, this time her sadness finally reaching her face. And it was an expression that could shatter a heart of stone because it had come from the emotions of a woman who had mastered the art of suppressing all her emotions.  
  
"No woman ever deserves what happened to you Max" Logan's voice had gone sadder, if that were even possible. He tried to reach one had up to her's but she yanked it back, like it had burned her.   
  
"Doesn't make it go away" Max's voice put Logan's sad tone to heart breaking shame. "Never gonna stop seein' the bastard's face for as long as I live" this time when Logan reached for her hand she didn't pull away, lost in her own world.   
  
"What can I do?" his words from the previous day came out again. But this time there was no drug that might take an edge of things, no quick homeopathic fixes for this kind of pain.   
  
"I don't know" she sounded so torn and when she turned to look down at him, cold tears fell from her eyes, hitting the arm rests of his wheelchair. "Don't even know what to do myself" she moved again, and he thought at first that she would sprint for the elevator. But instead she slowly slowly knelt down beside him.   
  
He had to keep from sucking in a breath at the terrible pain he saw in her expression, like something deep inside her had gone away forever, locked up by a Warden with filthy fingers.  
  
He reached up a hand, intending to touch her face but she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around him hard before he got the chance. Her head lowered to his shoulder so it took a moment for him to realize that the sounds starting to echo around his apartment hallway was that of her own tortured crying.  
  
MAX (VOICE OVER): I've dealt with shit happening to me all my lift, thought I was immune to it.   
  
Logan's arms came up around her back, one finding a spot in the back of her head. He rubbed her back through her blue cotton t-shirt "I'm right here" those words sounded so feeble to him, they were all they had, crappy words, there was nothing more he could do. Bling had the same look in his own eyes.  
  
MAX (VOICE OVER): But maybe that's just another dangerous line to justify things  
  
(CUT TO: THE WARDEN'S QUARTERS. THE SAME ROOM WHERE MAX WAS AT PREVIOUSLY. THE WARDEN IS HUNCHED OVER ON A METAL SPRING SUPPORTED BED AND THE SHOT SWITCHES TO A YOUNG BRUNETTE GIRL IN HER EARLY TEENS WEARING A GRAY PAIR OF SWEATS LYING UNDERNEATH HIM ON THE MATTRESS)  
  
The Warden caressed the girl's face with the had that wasn't covering her mouth "I always get what I want honey-"   
  
MAX VOICE OVER: Even when they hurt like a bitch  
  
One tear fell from the nameless girl's eye, but she made no move to get up from the bed, feeling the warden come closer to her ear "Remember what I'll do if you make a sound"  
  
= = = =  
  
Hold me now  
  
I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinkin'...  
  
= = = =  
  
End  
  
Song Used in the Fic: "One Last Breath" by: Creed  
  
Ever year hundreds of girls and women are molested worldwide. Rape knows no boundaries of age, nationality or social status. No matter the events that led up to it no female deserves its result. If you or anyone you know is a victim of this please seeks help.  
  
Be careful out there ladies.  
  
R/R Please 


End file.
